Vice President Joe Biden visited a manufacturing plant in Rochester on Thursday and spoke about jobs, the economy and the nation's future.

In his speech at Albany Engineered Composites, Biden painted a positive picture of the road ahead as the nation continues to recover from recession.

The vice president focused on growing manufacturing jobs in the United States, using the term "insourcing" instead of "outsourcing."

Biden also talked about steady job growth in the country, saying there have been 22 straight months of private sector job growth. He said he's focused on providing the American people with hope that the country is heading in the right direction.

"Our administration is absolutely committed to do something other than to stand idly by," he said. "We're not the job creators. The biggest way to do that is to shed the policies of the last 10 years that have encouraged investment to go abroad and discourage investment to be here. It's not anti-business. It's pro-business."

Biden also stressed the importance of American workers, calling them the "most productive in the world."

Speaking to reporters, Biden said he thinks the Republican presidential candidates are demonstrating why voters should stick with President Barack Obama in November.

"The reason I think this race is going to be so clear is this is the first time in my career the Republicans aren't hiding the ball anymore," he said. "They're not talking about being compassionate conservatives. They're not talking about wanting to save Medicare."

Biden accused the Republican candidates of promoting a return to Bush-era policies.

"The way it's going to work is they want to continue to not only keep the tax cuts for the wealthy, but increase the tax cuts for the wealthy," he said. "The way (Republicans want) to move forward is to deregulate Wall Street again. They're being straightforward about it."

Biden also went to Portsmouth, where he met a crowd of supporters at the Obama for America campaign office.